I Don’t Want To Vote Today

But I will. Eve and I are going to bundle up (it’s COLD) and make the short walk down to the poll, where she will watch me cast my ballot. I plan to vote with my child by my side for years to come. Our foremothers fought and died for our right to suffrage, and I want to start teaching my daughter about the electoral process and her place in it before she is even old enough to speak.

I’m voting even though I don’t want to because there are many people who don’t even have the option. There are too many folks who are locked out of the process by various axes of oppression: youth, immigrants, people with disabilities, homeless folks, the list goes on.

I’m going to vote for an asshole, because he’s the least assholish of the bunch. I feel betrayed, ignored, and bewildered by my options. I feel like the choice before me is between eating a shit sandwich or sipping shit soup; and the fact that I have a choice at all in this pathetic state of affairs is an unearned privilege.

Get out there and do your part, friends. May the least dangerous and profit-driven candidate win.

2 Responses to “I Don’t Want To Vote Today”

I’m going to vote for an asshole, because he’s the least assholish of the bunch. I feel betrayed, ignored, and bewildered by my options. I feel like the choice before me is between eating a shit sandwich or sipping shit soup; and the fact that I have a choice at all in this pathetic state of affairs is an unearned privilege.

Yep, exactly. I voted for the Democrats, not because I have any hope that they’ll ever have any interest in social justice, but only because maybe just maybe, the capitalist system will be just a tiny bit kinder under the Democrats. Maybe. But probably not.

And your point about the groups of people who are outright disenfranchised is well taken, and I’d add that this group includes those who’ve been convicted of a crime – many states prohibit these people from ever voting again. And I wonder who else the rethuglicans and the tea-partiers would like to disenfranchise? “You can’t vote if you have had an abortion! You can’t vote if you’re queer! You can’t vote if you’re a Muslim!”